Blueprint Medicines Appoints Anthony Boral, M.D., Ph.D., As Senior Vice President, Clinical Development

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Feb. 11, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Blueprint Medicines, a leader in discovering and developing kinase drugs to treat patients with genomically-defined diseases, today announced the appointment of Anthony (Andy) Boral, M.D., Ph.D., as Senior Vice President, Clinical Development. Dr. Boral joins Blueprint Medicines from Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, where he served for four years as Executive Director, Oncology Clinical Research. At Blueprint Medicines, he will join the executive management team and be responsible for clinical research and operations as well as regulatory affairs. 

"Blueprint Medicines is at a transformative stage as we prepare to advance our two lead kinase drugs into clinical trials this year," said Jeffrey Albers, Chief Executive Officer of Blueprint Medicines. "We are delighted to have Andy join the Blueprint Medicines team to build out our clinical development organization. Andy brings a wealth of highly relevant experience and a track record of success in leading early- and late-stage clinical trials targeting patients with genomically-defined diseases. Most notably, Andy led the clinical development of the ALK inhibitor, ceritinib, which achieved breakthrough therapy status and was developed in a record three years." 

Dr. Boral brings more than 15 years of leadership in drug development. At Novartis, Dr. Boral oversaw the clinical aspects of various first-in-human compounds, including ceritinib and the immune checkpoint inhibitor programs. He also served as Deputy Site Head for the Cambridge, MA location beginning in 2013. Before Novartis, Dr. Boral spent eight years at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, where he worked in roles of increasing responsibility eventually serving as Vice President of Oncology Clinical Research and leading the development of bortezomib, the market leading therapy for multiple myeloma. Dr. Boral holds a M.D. and Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He completed his training in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, and a fellowship in Medical Oncology at the Dana Farber/Partners CancerCare program. He also spent two years on staff in the Thoracic Oncology group at Massachusetts General Hospital.

"I am excited to be a part of Blueprint Medicines at this transformational time and to oversee the development of BLU-285 and BLU-554 for patients with significant unmet need," said Dr. Boral. "Even more, I look forward to advancing the company's mission of systematically and reproducibly making highly-selective kinase drugs to treat patients with genomically-defined diseases. By targeting the genomic-drivers of disease, we have the opportunity to develop drugs that offer a significant and durable clinical benefit to patients."

Blueprint Medicines expects to initiate clinical trials in 2015 with its two lead product candidates:

• BLU-285 is the first known selective inhibitor of KIT Exon 17 mutants. Blueprint Medicines intends to initiate two clinical studies with this drug, including one for the underserved systemic mastocytosis patient population and another for patients with genomically-defined forms of gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST).
• BLU-554 is an exquisitely selective fibroblast growth factor 4 (FGFR4) inhibitor. Blueprint Medicines anticipates initiating a clinical study for patients suffering from hepatocellular carcinoma with aberrant FGFR4 pathway activation.

About Blueprint Medicines 
Blueprint Medicines makes kinase drugs to treat patients with genetically defined diseases. Led by a team of industry innovators, Blueprint Medicines integrates a novel target discovery engine and proprietary compound library to understand the blueprint of cancer and craft highly selective therapies. This empowers the Blueprint Medicines team to develop patient-defined medicines aimed at eradicating cancer. Blueprint Medicines is privately held and raised $115 million in financing since its 2011 inception.

Contact:

Investor Relations:
Beth DelGiacco
Stern Investor Relations, Inc.
212 362 1200
beth@sternir.com

Media Relations:
David Polk
Chandler Chicco Companies
310 309 1029
dpolk@chandlerchiccocompanies.com

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SOURCE Blueprint Medicines